Maybe I'm missing something, but what's wrong with your kid drinking fruit juices and milk? Along with a sufficient amount of water I would think that a parent would prefer their child drink 100% pure fruit juices and milk as opposed to an artificially-flavored drink mix, regardless of how much sugar you add to it.

Because second only to Happy Meals, Juice and Milk are the leading causes of child obesity.

Because second only to Happy Meals, Juice and Milk are the leading causes of child obesity.

Milk and juice are second only to Happy Meals? Care to share your sources on that? The average American child spends a significant percentage of their time sitting on their butts watching TV, or playing computer games. Few calories are expended during this sedentary activity. Not surprisingly, obesity rates are higher among children who frequently watch television. In addition, only a small minority of children (1 in 5) regularly participate in after-school sports or extra-curricular physical activity.

Couple that with excessive snacking on high calorie snacks and a fast food diet and I'd say that fruit juice and milk are the least of their problems. My kids drink milk, 100% fruit juices and water and they are in great shape. However, they don't eat fast food, junkie snacks and what they do eat is monitored by their mother and I. They also don't watch an excessive amount of TV, we don't own any video games and they actually enjoy playing and running around outside.

A friend of my lets his daughter drink 100% fruit juice all the time... her teeth are rotten. She is perhaps 5. My daughter like Orange Juice and son likes milk. So far with trips to the park and such ... they are heathy and fit. I hate to think about what we drank growing up but from sun up till the street lights came on ... we were outside playing.

Carbonated Koolade huh .... I may try that with splenda.

Edit ... The Koolade would be for me ... the kids wont drink anything carbonated :P

A friend of my lets his daughter drink 100% fruit juice all the time... her teeth are rotten.

Please forgive me if I come across like a d!ck, but does he brush her teeth? Both of my boys have been drinking 100% fruit juices since the sippy cup days and their teeth are fine. I do however make sure that they brush their teeth at least three times a day. Their old enough now (six and four) to do it themselves, but before that we did it for them.

I would suggest Apfelschorle, if you have kegging capabilities. 60% apple juice, 40% water, carbonate. ~$10 for 5 gallons

Thanks for the tip. I had picked up some apple juice thinking I was going to start another batch of Apfelwein but ended up wanting something without alcohol. This was the perfect match! Got a keg of it chilling and carbonating right now.

We are switching my boy off of fruit juices and milk over to Kool Aide. The boy drinks like a fish ( I fear for my beer when he is older). Now, when I mix up the Kool Aide I only use half to a quarter of the sugar the packet calls for. That is the beauty of KA, you control the sweetness and it still tastes good.

Anyway, as I was topping up the pitcher I took note of the bubbles and it made me wonder, how would Kool Aide taste post carbonation? Sort of a cheap bastards soda. I figure that at the least 2.5 to 4 cups sugar and 10 packs of KA would do for a 5 gallon keg-o-the-stuff but, would the carbonic bite counter the sugar to the extent that more would be needed to maintain the original character of the drinks after carbonation?

I would think you could add champagne yeast like you do for root beer. I think the idea of trying it in 2 liter soda bottles is a good idea. I have thought about doing this myself, but haven't done it yet.

id bet it would be like orange or grape crush drink.

i never thought a beer forum could turn into a parenting counseling session -lol

I'll second the crystal lite
I have a diabetic son and I tried carbing it one day the turn out was so great
all my kids (6) loved it.
I used to send the kids to school with 2 drink boxes in their lunch for a total of 12 a day (expensive) now they all have a p.e.t. bottle and I make carbed crystal lite.
I would recommend trying it.
I wouldn't recommend their lemonade straight up it's great carbed is a different story.
this coming school year I may have to get a keg I've been making it in 2L p.e.t. bottles it works great but with 6 kids it's a full time job